BSOD Random Occurance (atikmpag.sys possible)

Hello,

BSOD has happened three times. Once, I was watching a movie and the other times when I was away from the computer. At the times I was away from the computer, no video or audio was running, some other programs were running and that was all. This problem occurred before and all I had to do was uninstall the catalyst program and it worked fine, no BSODs.

I have attached the required zip file and minidump.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

//Vinh

Code:

BugCheck 116, {fffffa800def8010, fffff880041a08c8, 0, 2}

This bugcheck is different from all other BSODs in that it only occurs because there was a failed attempt to perform TDR (Timeout Detection Recovery) display reset operation.

What does this mean?

Well, when the display driver stops responding for any reason in particular the system calls a TDR reset function which should get the display driver to respond again, when it responds your screen flashes black with a notification in the bottom right corner saying something along the lines of

"An attempt to reset the display driver and recover was successful"

Now when it doesn't respond within the allocated time interval the system bugchecks, this is either caused by a buggy display driver or the graphics card is failing.

The call stack looks like this:

Code:

0: kd> knL
 # Child-SP          RetAddr           Call Site
00 fffff880`05c88888 fffff880`042cc140 nt!KeBugCheckEx <--- it didn't respond so it crashed
01 fffff880`05c88890 fffff880`042cbe4a dxgkrnl!TdrBugcheckOnTimeout+0xec <-- If it doesn't respond bugcheck
02 fffff880`05c888d0 fffff880`04372f13 dxgkrnl!TdrIsRecoveryRequired+0x1a2 <-- here's the attempt to reset the display
03 fffff880`05c88900 fffff880`0439ccf1 dxgmms1!VidSchiReportHwHang+0x40b <-- this is the hang 
04 fffff880`05c889e0 fffff880`0439b437 dxgmms1!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x71 <-- this is checking to see how everything is doing
05 fffff880`05c88a10 fffff880`0436e2d2 dxgmms1!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x1fb
06 fffff880`05c88ab0 fffff880`0439aff6 dxgmms1!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0x1da
07 fffff880`05c88bc0 fffff800`0351773a dxgmms1!VidSchiWorkerThread+0xba <-- display thread schedule routines
08 fffff880`05c88c00 fffff800`0326c8e6 nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
09 fffff880`05c88c40 00000000`00000000 nt!KxStartSystemThread+0x16

That should make it a bit easier to understand.

Now lets check the display driver details.

Code:

0: kd> lmvm atikmdag
start             end                 module name
fffff880`048f0000 fffff880`05356000   atikmdag   (deferred)             
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmdag.sys
    Image name: atikmdag.sys
    Timestamp:        Thu Nov 10 02:52:46 2011 (4EBB3C7E)
    CheckSum:         00A1B01E
    ImageSize:        00A66000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

The answer seems simple enough, update the display driver.

I recommend using a version around late 2013 as these latest ones seem to be quite the troublemakers.

How-To Uninstall AMD Catalyst Drivers From A Windows Based System

Post back the results.

So uninstall the old ATI Catalyst Install Manager, do I install the Catalyst Software Suite that was released in 15-Oct-2013?

No, you do not need any Catalyst software.

So where do I find the drivers for my video card?

You need to go onto the AMD site, find your graphics card and download the driver.

When I go the AMD site and search for the drivers, it brings me to this site for drivers - Legacy. The file to download for drivers is the Catalyst Software Suite that was released in 15-Oct-2013.

You download that driver then select a custom install, afterwards only install the display driver.

Ah, understood. Downloading now. Thank you for the patience.

I uninstalled the old drivers and reinstalled the new drivers, but I still got a BSOD. I have attached the newest zip file.

//Vinh